


Butter Pecan Motor Oil and Existential Dread

by vitaminanime



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Anachronism, Catatonic, Catheters, Colostomy Bag, Euthanasia, Euthanasia (Discussed), F/M, G-Tube, Medical Procedures, Mideel, Piggyback Rides, Texting, Wheelchairs, Yuffie is an audience surrogate, drool, emojis, feeding tube, mako poisoning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 20:21:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17752841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vitaminanime/pseuds/vitaminanime
Summary: When Cloud is in Mideel with mako poisoning, Tifa gets her hands dirty while taking care of him. Meanwhile, world-class pessimist Vincent teaches a very traumatized Yuffie a lesson in optimism.





	Butter Pecan Motor Oil and Existential Dread

Tifa awakened from her half sleep and yawned and stretched. Calling it sleep would be lying. She was so worried about Cloud it was hard to go beyong a hypnagogic state. She went into the cupboard and brought out the necesseties: a receptable, a large syringe, a bottle of distilled water, and a can of one of those butter pecan flavored nutrition shakes that smelled sickeningly sweet. She had once tasted a bit from the security seal-it tasted sickeningly sweet and of artificial chemicals and the despair of not being able to feed oneself.

She set the necesseties on a tray on the nearby table.

"Time for breakfast, Cloud." She said.

"Unghh" Cloud moaned.

She rolled up his shirt and got a hold of his feeding tube and opened the valve. She flushed the tube with distilled water and then began to feed him for real. She knew the drill by now: crack open the can of nutrition shake, empty the sticky beige liquid into the container, insert the syringe, pull up the plunger, turn it upside down, flick flick, squirt out the air bubbles, insert the tip of the syringe into his feeding tube, push down on the plunger with a slow and steady pace, and repeat until the entire dose was given.

She flushed his tube with water and closed the valve and rolled down Cloud's shirt. She wiped a bit of drool from his mouth.

"How was breakfast? Was it yummy?" Said Tifa.

"Gnnnnnkkkk" groaned Cloud. The vacant stare in his glowing blue eyes made her heart bleed.

"I take that as a yes." Said Tifa. "Now let's go for a walk." She removed the wheel locks from his wheelchair and began to push him out of the clinic.

The sun of Mideel was bright and the balmy air was faintly scented with palm fronds and hibiscus. She smiled sweetly at the pensioners sitting on park benches and walking their dogs.

"Such duty." Said one old lady sitting on a park bench.

"Poor dear soul." Said another old lady sitting on the same park bench.

"Her smile looks forced. She looks like she hasn't gotten any sleep in days. I don't know how she puts up with him like that. Yes he's good-looking but he's a drooling vegetable. Such filth, taking care of invalids. If I were her I would have smothered him with a pillow long ago." Said the third old lady on the park bench.

Tifa was not out of earshot when she heard her say that. At any other time she would have beaten the tar out of her but she decided not to waste her energy on people who didn't matter.

When they returned to the clinic she rolled Cloud back into his room and he slumped over and seemingly went to sleep. She heard a beep on her phone.

It was from Yuffie.

Yuffie: heya

Tifa texted back

Tifa: Hi

Yuffie: how's Cloud?

Tifa: not doing well.

Yuffie: O.o

Tifa: He can't speak or do anything 4 himself, he's on a gtube

Yuffie: ?

Tifa: a g-tube is a tube they put in your stomach which they feed you through if you can't eat on your own.

Yuffie: what does he eat through the tube?

Tifa: these nutrition shakes in cans that taste like butter pecan motor oil and existential dread.

Yuffie sent back the puking emoji.

Tifa: he also needs a catheter and a colostomy bag

Yuffie: a what and a what?

Tifa described what a catheter and a colostomy bag were as tactfully and clearly as she could but fell short in both. She hesitated before pushing the send button.

Tifa:he can't go to the bathroom by himself.

Tifa waited a moment.

Yuffie's text came back. It was full of rows of the see-no-evil monkey and the hear-no-evil monkey emojis. 

Yuffie: LALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU

Tifa did not respond.

Vincent walked past a mortified Yuffie, slouched on the floor of the Highwind.

"If you're feeling queasy you'd best not use your electronic devices. Go to the bridge where you can look at the horizon." Said Vincent.

"But I was just texting Tifa! Poor Cloud! It's bad enough he can't move or speak but he can't eat or go to the bathroom on his own!" Yuffie gushed about all the unsavory ways Tifa had to take care of Cloud. Vincent was still stony-faced.

Yuffie's eyes widened and any color she had left drained from her face.

Vincent sat down next to her on her right and hugged his knees. "I know. It's awful what Cloud has to go through. Tifa has the patience of a saint, taking care of him like that."

Yuffie's complexion was almost translucent. "But do you know where a catheter goes? It goes up his..."

"I know where it goes, you need not elaborate." Grumbled Vincent.

"But still! Isn't it awful? If I couldn't eat or go to the bathroom on my own I would want someone to put a plastic bag over my head." Said Yuffie. "No enjoyment, no dignity, no memories, you're alive but not living! Cloud's body is his holding cell!" Yuffie's eyes were wild with lament.

"Darn right it's awful. But it could be worse. A lot worse." Said Vincent.

"how?" Yuffie's voice came out as a whisper.

"I know that feeding tubes and all those other implements Cloud needs are gross but they're there for a reason. What's the alternative?" Said Vincent.

Yuffie's tongue and eyes were frozen. 

"It's ok if you don't know." Said Vincent.

There was a long pause.

"The alternative is Cloud starves in his own mess." Said Vincent.

Yuffie sputtered. "I...I suppose you're right! It IS better he have all those gross medical implements than the alternative! You're a genius!" And with that Yuffie reached to the side and hugged Vincent around the shoulders. Vincent stiffened at the sudden gesture of affection.

"What do you say we go to the bridge." Said Vincent as Yuffie loosed him from her grasp.

"Ok." A little if the color returned to her cheeks.

But as she stood up she swooned and Vincent caught her and swooped her up into a piggyback ride. as they headed into some turbulence Vincent almost lost his balance.

"Whoa Vinny!" Said Yuffie as she tugged on the collar of his cloak.

"Don't get too comfortable." Said Vincent as he carried her down the hall, cracking a smirk under his cloak collar.

**Author's Note:**

> When I first played Final Fantasy 7 some years ago, Cloud's mako poisoning traumatized me even more than Aerith's death. I always wondered what the extent of the amount of care Tifa gave Cloud, because taking care of an invalid far exceeds pushing their wheelchair. I felt most comfortable only having her feed him through the g-tube (something I have personal experience doing), but what goes in must come out and I was thinking that the descriptions of catheter and colostomy bag changes were too graphic so I didn't include them. If you would think it would add depth to include descriptions of the other medical procedures, let me know in the comments section.


End file.
